Some words are written down and are here for a day and then gone.
Other words are so pointed, so perfect, that they stand for many years. J.C.
Ryle is a man who wrote many books and pamphlets and sermons that are
as powerful and relevant today as they were in the 19th century. His
description of jellyfish Christianity could as easily have been written
here in the 21st century.
[Dislike of dogma] is an
epidemic which is just now doing great harm, and specially among young
people. It produces what I must venture to call a “jelly-fish”
Christianity in the land: that is, a Christianity without bone, or
muscle, or power. A jelly-fish is a pretty and graceful object when it
floats in the sea, contracting and expanding like a little, delicate,
transparent umbrella. Yet the same jelly-fish, when cast on the shore,
is a mere helpless lump, without capacity for movement, self-defense, or
self-preservation. Alas! It is a vivid type of much of the religion of
this day, of which the leading principle is, “No dogma, no distinct
tenets, no positive doctrine.”
We have hundreds of “jelly-fish”
clergymen, who seem not to have a single bone in their body of divinity.
They have not definite opinions; they belong to no school or party;
they are so afraid of “extreme views” that they have no views at all. Continue at Tim Challies
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